A Touch of Destiny
by Jedi Princess Jainakin
Summary: What happened between the time Will "died" and was resurrected in AWE?


**a.n. I watched the entire _Pirates_ trilogy yesterday and had this idea: what happened to Will in between the time he "died" and was resurrected? This is a story that attempts to answer that question. One thing: I have a problem with dialogue and I did my best trying to capture Calypso's speech pattern and dialect in this story. I apologize for anything that sounds off. Also, I made a certain choice with Will's future after this story (you might know what I'm talking about) and ran with it. I don't care if it's right or wrong, it's what I believe so I'm sticking to it. With that, please read, review, and enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Pirates of the Caribbean_ or any related material (if I did, I wouldn't be the poor college student that I am) and I am not making any money off of any of this. It all belongs to Disney, Bruckheimer, etc. I am only playing around with this wonderful world.

**A Touch of Destiny**

"You are not dead yet, William Turna."

Will heard the disembodied voice speak to him but was unaware as to where it was coming from. It seemed to be everywhere, enveloping him. He had the sensation of floating as a sense of peace and calm washed over him. He couldn't move, couldn't open his eyes to look around, nothing. _Where am I? _he thought. _What's going on?_

"You have a touch of destiny about you, Mista Turna."

That voice. He knew that voice. Where did he recognize it from? That's it! It was Tia Dalma, Calypso. The sea goddess. Why was she talking to him? What did she mean?

"You stabbed the 'eart of Davy Jones. You are now the captain of the _Flying Dutchman_. You must fulfill your destiny."

The heart! That's right. He remembered the rain pounding his injured body and someone placing a knife in his hand. He recalled the feel of someone wrapping a hand around his own and helping him thrust the item downwards, tearing through the soft tissues of the beating heart. Blackness overtook him soon after; what happened after that, he didn't know. But he had a feeling that he was forgetting something, something important. What was it?

Elizabeth!

Now he remembered. He had fallen during his duel with Davy Jones and the captain had sneered at him and Elizabeth as they locked their gazes on one another. His death was forestalled by Jack's taunting of the monstrous captain, holding the heart, the power of life and death in his hand. His relief at escaping death had been short-lived, for Jones had called Jack's bluff and thrust his sword into his chest. The pain he had felt had been excruciating, but it was nothing compared to what he felt when he realized that he was dying, that he would soon take his last breath, that he would never again get to hold or taste his sweet Elizabeth.

Jones was right, he had realized at that moment. Love _was _cruel. It was cruel to be torn away from the one you love. It was cruel to realize that you would never again see her, hold her, love her. It was cruel to never have the chance to raise a family or to grow old together.

But love was beneficent too and if he had to die, he knew that those precious few moments he had been married to Elizabeth were the best moments of his life.

He could remember wavering on the brink of consciousness then, though the feel of Elizabeth's soft hands stroking him, her whispered words begging him to hang on, and her tears dripping from her beautiful eyes were vividly etched in his mind. Everything after that was a blur, the memories scarce.

"Your destiny awaits you, Captain Turna. Take the helm and live again."

Will suddenly felt warm and felt as if he was changing, transforming somehow. And it was getting brighter.

"You have been given new life, William Turna, but it comes at a cost. You must fulfill the duties required of you as captain of the _Flying Dutchman_. One day on land, ten years at sea. Be faithful in your duties. If your wife remains faithful in hers, you will be reunited, forever. Now, go. Finish what was started. Receive your one day."

He realized he had regained the ability to control his body and his eyes snapped open. All around him, he saw, was water. He felt something hard beneath him and noticed he was lying on the wooden deck of a ship. The _Flying Dutchman_. A sudden urge to get up and get to the wheel overtook him and he managed to get to the helm just as he felt the waters around him rushing, receding. In no time, the bow of the ship broke through the curtain of water that enclosed it and the sun was once again shining down on him.

Looking across the _Dutchman_'s deck, he saw crew members struggling to regain their footing and regaining their humanity. He noticed the incredulous expressions on their faces as they looked at themselves and then at him. But his eyes drifted to dark ship nearby. The _Black Pearl_ drifted lazily in the waters just to the side, licking her wounds from the fierce battle it had just survived. He wasn't paying attention to the ship, though, or anything else around him. His eyes found the thing they had been aching to see again. Her. Still dressed in the attire of a Pirate Lord, his wife, his Elizabeth, still looked as beautiful as ever. The smile on her face as she watched him return from the land of the dead was like a light that he thought he'd never see again. He couldn't help but smile back as he ordered his crew and his ship back into the fight.

Once the battle was over, he knew, he would only get one day to be with his wife before duty called him away for the next ten years. The price paid for what was done was steep and it would be a hard ten years away from her. But, as he would later tell his father, it all depended on that one day.

Far across the sea in the little shack she had occupied during the many years she was bound in her human form, the sea goddess Calypso smiled her dark, toothy smile.

"Your destiny awaits you."


End file.
